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<h1 id="title">The Bilski Patent Case at the U.S. Supreme Court</h1>
<div dir="ltr" id="content" lang="en"><span class="anchor" id="top"></span>
<span class="anchor" id="line-2"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-3"></span><p class="line867"><div class="table-of-contents"><p class="table-of-contents-heading">Contents<ol><li>
<a href="#Patentability_of_business_methods_and_software">Patentability of business methods and software</a></li><li>
<a href="#A_quick_Introduction_to_Bilski_v._Kappos">A quick Introduction to Bilski v. Kappos</a></li><li>
<a href="#More_Information_on_the_Bilski_Case">More Information on the Bilski Case</a></li></ol></div> <span class="anchor" id="line-4"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-5"></span><p class="line867">
<h1 id="Patentability_of_business_methods_and_software">Patentability of business methods and software</h1>
<span class="anchor" id="line-6"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-7"></span><p class="line862">The <a class="http" href="http://www.ffii.org/">FFII</a> (together with <a class="http" href="http://ipjustice.org/">IP Justice</a>) submitted an Amicus Curiae Brief (<a class="attachment" href="https://ffii.org/bilski?action=AttachFile&amp;do=view&amp;target=ffii_ipj-bilskiacb.pdf" title="attachment:ffii_ipj-bilskiacb.pdf">download the PDF here</a>) to the U.S. Supreme Court in the Case <a class="http" href="http://origin.www.supremecourtus.gov/docket/08-964.htm">Bilski v. Kappos</a>. What you find here is a brief Introduction to the case and links to some more in-depth  information. To support efforts, please consider <a class="https" href="https://ffii.org/Donations">donating</a> and/or <a class="http" href="http://action.ffii.org/member_application">becoming a member</a>. <span class="anchor" id="line-8"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-9"></span><p class="line874">Here's a picture of our Brief (well, one of the 40 copies we had to deliver) shortly before being submitted: <span class="anchor" id="line-10"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-11"></span><p class="line867"><img alt="alt The FFII&#x27;s Amicus Curiae Brief" class="attachment" src="https://ffii.org/bilski?action=AttachFile&amp;do=get&amp;target=image-bilski_acb.jpg" title="alt The FFII&#x27;s Amicus Curiae Brief" width="200" /> <span class="anchor" id="line-12"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-13"></span><p class="line862">You can read <a class="http" href="http://ffii.org/BilskiTeam">more about our team that filed the brief here</a>.  <span class="anchor" id="line-14"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-15"></span><p class="line867">
<h1 id="A_quick_Introduction_to_Bilski_v._Kappos">A quick Introduction to Bilski v. Kappos</h1>
<span class="anchor" id="line-16"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-17"></span><p class="line862">In 1997, Bernhard Bilski and <a class="attachment" href="https://ffii.org/bilski?action=AttachFile&amp;do=view&amp;target=bilski_application.pdf" title="attachment:bilski_application.pdf">applied for  a patent</a> on a method of hedging risks in commodities trading. The process claimed by Bilski is one of initialising a series of sales <span class="anchor" id="line-18"></span>transactions between brokers and  sellers based on a (fixed) historical <span class="anchor" id="line-19"></span>price rate, identifying sellers and initialising a series of sales <span class="anchor" id="line-20"></span>between brokers and sellers in order to balance out the risks of sellers <span class="anchor" id="line-21"></span>and buyers. <span class="anchor" id="line-22"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-23"></span><p class="line874">The patent was rejected by the US Patent and Trademark Office as well as the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. In May 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court, until now quite <span class="anchor" id="line-24"></span>critical of patenting abstract ideas, decided to hear the case. <span class="anchor" id="line-25"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-26"></span><p class="line874">As the Court of Appeals put it, the State Street decision (which introduced broad patentability, based on an artificial between "mathematical" and (non-mathematical?) algorithms, can not be fully trusted anymore. Therefore, the upcoming verdict by the the Supreme Court has to be considered a landmark decision on the limits of patentability. <span class="anchor" id="line-27"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-28"></span><p class="line867">
<h1 id="More_Information_on_the_Bilski_Case">More Information on the Bilski Case</h1>
<span class="anchor" id="line-29"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-30"></span><ul><li><p class="line891"><a class="http" href="http://ffii.org/BilskiEvents">Information and materials on upcoming and recent talks and events regarding the Bilski case</a> <span class="anchor" id="line-31"></span></li><li><p class="line891"><a class="http" href="http://ffii.org/MoreInfoBilski">Read some more background info on the Bilski case</a> <span class="anchor" id="line-32"></span></li><li><p class="line891"><a class="http" href="http://ffii.org/BilskiEU">Read why the  Bilski case is important for the rest of the world</a> <span class="anchor" id="line-33"></span></li><li><p class="line891"><a class="http" href="http://ffii.org/EPOReferral">Read about the G3/08 Referral at the European Patent office, a (somewhat) similar case</a> <span class="anchor" id="line-34"></span></li></ul><span class="anchor" id="bottom"></span></div><p id="pageinfo" class="info" lang="en" dir="ltr">bilski  (last edited 2010-02-08 12:13:55 by <span title="Georg Jakob @ ppp-203-54.30-151.libero.it[151.30.54.203]"><a class="nonexistent" href="https://ffii.org/gjakob" title="Georg Jakob @ ppp-203-54.30-151.libero.it[151.30.54.203]">gjakob</a></span>)</p>

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